After 4-year absence, faculty senate to be revived at William Carey University
Hattiesburg American
March 7, 2011
William Carey University plans to reinstate its faculty senate, after at least a four-year period in which that governing body lay dormant.
A 10-member faculty committee, appointed by the school administration last fall at the suggestion of several faculty members, voted unanimously to reinstate the senate.
It had not met since the presidency of Larry Kennedy, who died in office in September 2006.
The senate's prolonged repose is not easily explained, according to committee members.
"As far I know it pretty much ceased to meet, and the current administration inherited that situation," said religion professor Dan Browning, who has taught at William Carey since 1990.
Current President Tommy King succeeded Kennedy in February 2007.
"What I had been told is that it had not been serving any needed purpose," said current Vice President for Academic Affairs Garry Breland, who started at William Carey in November 2007.
Breland said the school's faculty senate is mentioned in the school's SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) reaccreditation documents. A vote against reinstating the senate would have prompted the administration to remove its mention from the documents, he said.
